The Zeta Project Season 3 Episode 8
by clutzattack
Summary: Episode 8
1. Chapter 1

THE ZETA PROJECT

SEASON THREE

Disclosure: I don't own The Zeta Project or its characters. And I have no idea why I really have this disclaimer in here… just always have had one since everyone else has one. I imagine it's in the rules somewhere, but I don't remember anymore.

It took me a long time to finish episode 7 after I started, and I don't expect a repeat with episode 8, but you never know what life throws at you. (Or when you get writers block, or just plain out forget what it was you were intending to do with the story, or even forgetting what the past key plot points were.) I think this is my most creatively planned episode yet, so I hope you stick through it, or at least put it on an update memo thing so that if it takes me ages to finish, you get a notification at least that it's done or updated. This might start out as a recap story as it's been so long I think a refresher of what's happening might help out, but I promise there's new insights to come!

And while I might mention some things that may seem "spiritual" in nature in this episode, nothing is meant to be taken as offensive/or credible material. I am not endorsing any form of religious or atheist beliefs or practices of any kind.

"The Augur's Omens" Ep. 8 Season 3

Bennet looked penitent, almost even prayerful from the way his fingers were folded and his head bowed against them as he leaned his elbows on his desk and stared curiously down at the envelope before him. In this day and age, it was a rare occurrence to receive paper mail, and even more so if it was classified and work related. Classified documents were usually sent to him over the network because of the convenience and that computer files could be encrypted and password protected and sent much faster. The courier that had delivered it had made him sign three different documents verifying his identification before releasing it to him. Whatever was in this package had to be especially important so as not to risk someone even inside the network discovering its contents. Carefully he opened the heavy manila envelope and pulled out the documents, and began to read…

...

With only three days left until Dr. Edmund's hearing, now was not the time to be scrounging around with the feds—yet they found themselves in their habitual activity of breaking all or most of the motor vehicle laws in their attempt to evade the agents tailing them.

Nothing too significant had happened since their trip to Las Vegas—at least nothing as weird as Zee taking off after she deliberately told him not to thankfully. They'd mostly just been killing time until Edmund's court hearing and had been keeping all their doings low key. Soon though, they'd find out if the plan they'd had for the last few months would pay off—or if they'd wasted all of this precious time on a whim that Edmund would help them once they finally found him. Their plan to find Edmund at his court hearing and ask for his help in getting access to the Sub Rosa terminal again seemed more far fetched the longer they thought about it, but they didn't really have many other options. They needed to get access to the recovered wreckage of the Noesis in order to see if Selig had had any blue prints for the conscience chip he put in Zee, or if there he had personal files that might suggest he had made one, or even just ANY other clue that would lead them in a direction closer to freedom.

As Dr. Edmund was being tried for treason against the United States and National Security Agency though, it seemed unlikely that even if they did manage to have a moment alone to ask for his help that he'd be willing to get himself in even more trouble… And as so much time had elapsed since the incident, what were the chances any of his security clearances would still work, or that they wouldn't have fixed whatever loopholes he got through the first time? Still, they had to try. Their hunt for the other scientists wasn't going much better. It seemed that every person that had worked on the Zeta Project had gone into hiding or disappeared off the face of the earth. Dr. Anderson had been the last hit they'd had, and that had been a complete setup!

Time was running out. In three days they'd know where their fates would lie--assuming they didn't get caught by the agents before then!

"What do you think did it this time?" Ro asked Zee as she dropped one hand from holding her wind tossed hair out of her face to clutch the door handle while Zee made a sharp left turn through a stale yellow light. Of all the places to be having a high speed pursuit, why did it have to be in city limits and not on the freeway where there weren't stoplights? And why did this usually always happen when they were in a convertible with the top down, and when she didn't have a hair tie?

In the past Zee had suggested that she try rolling up the windows to help divert the airflow. She'd then explained how it was unfashionable to roll the windows up in a convertible if the top was down and that it had to be all or nothing. Zee then saw it necessary to point out the incongruence of how even though she could easily climb in and out of the car by jumping over the side when the top was down, she still used the door. This was one of the few times that Zee had ever changed her opinion on something, and she found herself just jumping into the passenger seat more often, but she still refused to roll up the windows if the top was down, and her hair was becoming a nice mess as a result.

The agents were not so easily deterred by the red light, and took the risk of running through it to follow them. "Could be several things," Zee answered her question, while looking straight ahead so as not to miss a potentially dangerous hazard on the road, or hopefully--an opportunity to ditch the feds. The first thing that came to his mind probably wasn't the reason in this circumstance, but as it has caused them to be discovered in the past he listed it first, "Could be the car again…But I know we got this one from a private party instead of a dealer."

"I hope not, since it really drains our savings having to get a new one in each state we visit, much less each city…"

Zee knew that by savings, she was referring to the creds that they had in as separate account aside from his cred card which they now knew could easily be tracked. They'd opened the account with the earnings he had made in Las Vegas almost a month ago and had made sure to visit the various Indian casinos they passed by in order to replenish what they spent from it. "If not the car, it could easily have been the hotel we stayed in that one night… We did use the government card to pay for that. They might have pulled video surveillance and gotten a glimpse of the license plate and tracked it that way. But that was three days ago so not likely. Or it could have just been that someone recognized us the old fashioned way and called it in…"

"Maybe, 'Mr. Extendo-Arms-have-to-save-every-stranded-cat-from-the-tree-it-got-stuck-in'…"

"But what's the likelihood that girl's mother would believe her if her daughter did say that a man with long arms reached her cat down out of the tree?" Zee started a counter argument, but was interrupted.

"ZEE!" Ro shouted, excitedly, pointing to the top of a all Ferris wheel that was standing out above the building rooflines. "A carnival! We can easily find a place to get lost in there."

It was scarce that Ro ever noticed something before he did, and this was not one of those times. Several blocks behind them he'd seen a poster for the fair, and had photographed the entire contents of the page in his memory in the split second that they'd passed it. With the general directions in mind, he'd been trying to lose the feds while making their way closer to the fairgrounds in case they didn't. In general, whenever they were being followed, Zee made it a point to find their way to a crowded area, as such places were easier to disappear into.

As for the events that he didn't notice first, they were usually odd human quagmires that his mechanical mindset made him indifferent to until Ro identified them something significant that he should be taking notice of. As far as road conditions went though, it was hard to beat his 100 GB processor and 100x magnification eyesight.

"155 North 1000 West," he recited the address.

"Where's that?"

"Up ahead," Zee thought it was obvious.

"You mean the carnival--you sure? We just passed a street that said West 4th North, seems a little far off." Almost as soon as she said that though, they crossed the intersection and the street became West 400 North. "Whoever is in charge of city street planning and labeling should be fired," she contemptuously spat. They'd been driving around for a while now, and even though the locals said it was one of the easiest cities to navigate with its grid layout, she thought it was the hardest. Everything in the city centered around some religious temple in the dead center, and everything was labeled either North, South, East, or West of it. But the problem was, even with a compass, you'd never know if you were heading East or West on East street until you went at least a block and saw that the numbers were getting larger or smaller. And to add to that, not every street was numbered as some were actually named. Salt Lake City was certainly not as navigation-friendly as the people in it wanted outsiders to believe it was.

"You ready to run?" Zee looked to Ro as he began looking for a convenient place to park as they were really close to the fairgrounds. Most likely they'd never see their car again, so while it probably wouldn't hurt to just stop it in the middle of the street and jump out of it, the safer thing would be to move it out of traffic first. Also, on the chance that it might still be there if the feds didn't bother to have it confiscated, he figured they should park it somewhere where the local law enforcement or business owner wouldn't have it towed for being parked in an unauthorized area.

Ro scrambled to grab her bag and make sure that it was fastened shut then slung it over her back. "Just say when," she held onto the door side ready to jump out.

Zee pulled the car off the side of the road, "Go!" he shouted to her as he placed the car in park and turned off the engine. Ro sprang out of the car while Zee stepped over the door with his long legs and took off running.

They ran across the street and down the block toward the state fairgrounds. Amidst old brick buildings and warehouses, the portable event booths and attraction rides had been set up on a large asphalt parking lot with a wide sprawling lawn and dirt field. Along with the booths and rides there were vendors to ensure the masses were well fed and supplied with souvenirs, aluminum grandstands for seating, and the familiar stench of fattened livestock and their excrements.

There hardly was any time to note the finer amenities of the fairground as the NSA vehicle had stopped and let a few agents off to follow them on foot, so they were still well in danger. Most likely the vehicle would go around the block, park, then send the second half of its agents after them. They were always outnumbered, but if they could reach the crowds before the agents caught up, they should have the advantage.

Zee ran in front, as he was most skilled at finding their way around and finding good hiding places or thinking of on the spot clever hologram disguises for both of them. There wasn't any admittance fee, so they were able to run right up to the fairground gates without being delayed in having to buy tickets or pay for parking. They were only stopped momentarily when Ro had to open her purse and show the gate security guard the contents of her bag and prove that she wasn't carrying anything of dubious legality. The agents were delayed a little longer with their equipment and holsters as the security guards verified the legitimacy of their NSA badges. They'd have to be absolutely sure these people weren't imposters as they were well armed and entering into a bustling public area.

"We're going to have to find another way out," Zee began planning their escape, "they're certainly going to have someone watching for us to leave the way we came in."

"What else is new?" Ro wasn't surprised at all. Once they passed the game booths, Zee held his arm out in front of Ro, signaling her to slow her sprint to a quickened brisk walk. It was time to start think about blending in, which would be hard to do if they kept running as no one else around them looked like they were in a marathon.

"Stay close," Zee warned Ro, pulling her to his side, and draping his arm around her shoulder—a usual signal that he was going to put a hologram over the two of them. She looked down at her feet then at her hands, wondering what disguise he'd thought of, and was surprised to see her regular black and white concord sneakers on her feet, and her typical un-manicured fingernails. Zee apparently had other motives to keep her close, besides to use a holographic disguise this time.

They had moved into the vendor section of the fairgrounds where dozens of tents had been erected over hundreds of tables loaded with cheap junk and homemade crafts. Still tightly holding her close to his side, Zee began to weave in and out of the tents, either by passing through the spaces in between each tent, or by slipping through a vent in the fabric in the walls of the tent. Ro thought of how one day it would be fun to actually take time to look at everything for sale and to not just be looking at the tables to see if any of them had a skirt that they could hide under.

As they passed through various tents that were selling things like home made jams and beaded jewelry , Ro soon began to suspect Zee was going in circles as while several of the vendors were selling the same items, what was the chance that two people would be trying to sell a toilet-bowl shaped flower planter? "Did you drop something, or are you actually lost?" Ro asked him.

"There's three possible exits I can see. We're just circling, until a window opens up for one of them."

"What kind of a window?"

"If the 'Whirl and Twirl' ride is going when we're at the north east corner, we'll have some cover from the agent on the grandstands to possibly make it to the livestock trailers without being seen, or if the agent by the hot dog stand moves, we can sneak out by the garbage dumpsters. Our third option is to head for the crafts judging warehouse and hope there's an exit somewhere in there, and that it's not being blocked or guarded."

"I get that there's no quick way out right now. But why don't you just pick one and we'll sit and wait until it's safe to run for it?"

"Because there are agents searching this area for us, and if they see us stopped in one place for too long, they'll figure out what we're watching for."

"So think of a way that we can trick them into thinking that we've already left."

He wished he had an idea of how to do that, but the feds had gotten to the point that they no longer gave up looking once they thought they'd left the area. They continued searching usually after they were gone just to make sure that they didn't pull such a trick. The only way to convince them they were gone, was to actually leave.

By their fourth lap, Zee had finally figured out that the Whirl and Twirl ride took 90 seconds to complete one ride, and about three minutes to load and unload passengers. After the passengers got on and it started up again, they'd have just under a minute to make it across the open walkway, as the ride took 30 seconds to reach its full height that would block them from the view of the agent. A minute was plenty of time, but his worry was that something would change the setup, such as another agent passing through the area, before the ride started again.

Ro pretended to be looking through the assorted bath salts and scented soaps at the table next to them while Zee watched for the ride to start up again. The dizzy and disoriented guests slowly exited the ride, as new riders handed their tickets to the ride operator and hurried on. "Okay, in just a few seconds…" Zee anticipated the window of opportunity.

The riders were strapped onto the machine, but as they were few in number, the operator decided that he was going to wait for a few more people to come on before he started the ride up.

"Looks like he's waiting for a few more people," Zee dismally noticed.

Ro looked up from the cucumber-melon candle she'd been smelling and became aware of an NSA agent not far from them at the end of the row of tents they were in. "Yeah, well we don't have time to wait," she put the candle back down, and pulled Zee further into the tent so he wouldn't be seen by the agent.

She tugged on his arm, leading him to the back of the tent as the agent continued his patrol in their direction. Lifting the back flap of the tent, they crawled under it and escaped. The merchant looked displeased with their method of departure, but if he were in the same position, Ro imagined he'd do the same thing with just as little disregard.

"That was close," Ro sighed as she stood up and began dusting the dirt off her pants, and brushing the gravel out of her palms.

"We're not safe yet, keep moving," Zee took her hand and pulled her behind him. Unfortunately for them, they'd escaped from one bad situation into another. While they'd evaded the agent patrolling the tent area, they were now in open view of the agent standing at the top step of the grandstands, and could easily be identified by her if she looked their way.

Watching the agent over his shoulder, Zee pushed Ro in front of him to hurry and get in the cover of something before she turned around. Zee picked up on the slight shift of weight from one hip to the other, indicating she was turning around. "Quick in there!" Zee, pushed Ro through an opening in the heavy fabric of the booth they were immediately next to.

Ro stumbled forward through a wall of hanging ropes of some sort, then tripped on what she thought was a large stuffed prize for perhaps one of the coin toss games and landed on a pile of objects of a similar palpability. She couldn't tell exactly what had cushioned her fall, but she suspected she'd fallen into one of the game venues. Everything was dark until her eyes adjusted from the bright outdoor sunlight to the soft incandescent lighting. As shadows turned into shapes, she realized she wasn't in the back compartment of a prize bin.

"I had the feeling that I needed to rearrange things in here. Good thing I did," the voice of a woman with a heavy European accent snickered.


	2. Chapter 2

Until her eyes finished adjusting, Ro couldn't tell who was speaking, but from the dark silhouette, she knew it was a large woman and that she was holding something big in her hands. As her vision focused, she was relived to see that the woman wasn't an NSA agent, and that the object she was holding wasn't a gun, but a large cushion. The woman was also not as heavy as she'd originally thought, but just appeared that way because of a scarf she was wearing that appeared to widen her outline, and that gave a costume-like appearance to her clothing.

After Ro picked herself onto her feet again, the woman fluffed the pillow in her hands, then set it down close to where Ro had just fallen. She then proceeded to take the remaining pillow from the other side of the room and place it along with the pillow she'd just set down. Then returning to her seat on the other side of the short table she'd set the pillows down next to she asked, "So what is it that you wish of Madame Mim?"

So, this woman was a fortune teller, Ro made the connection from the dark room and the woman's weird costume and title. Not knowing quite what to say, she looked over to Zee who staring out the crack in the doorway, watching for agents to pass by. He offered no suggestion.

"Well uh…" Ro was at a loss for what sort of an excuse to make. She didn't know if she should be killing time or thinking of a way to give them a quick departure.

"No need to be shy. Come, sit down. You have many questions, and I have many answers.

Ro looked to Zee again, who was no help as he was too busy fussing with the tent flaps to tell her what the plan was. "Actually, we just sort of stumbled in here on accident. We really need to get going…" Ro decided it was best to just move on. The less this woman (or anyone for that matter) saw of them, the better.

"I can read your palm, or I can ask the cards to tell secrets of your love life and fortune. Or I can search the stars for answers to your most burning questions. And if you're really curious to know the mysteries of your destiny, I can look into my crystal ball and see what the future holds in store for you..."

Her tagline certainly had intrigue, but Ro doubted the credibility of fortune telling, and she certainly didn't think they had the time to sit around and wait for the feds to find them while this woman made up stuff about what the creases in her hands meant. "No, it's okay, really…" Ro started to make another excuse, but then Zee finally decided to join the discussion.

He leaned over and whispered to Ro, "We'll be safe in here safe for a few minutes." She wanted to ask him on what grounds he'd made this conclusion, but she also didn't want to start a conversation in front of a third party about such matters.

Madame Mim brightened up as Zee knelt down on the cushion in front of her table. A little reluctant, Ro knelt down next to him. "So what is it that you'd like Madame Mim to tell you?" she asked Zee.

Ro didn't have to be a fortune teller to sense that he had been listening when he was looking out the door, and began to worry that he might be naive enough to ask her something stupid like what was going to happen at Dr. Edmund's court case. "How about something basic for him," Ro intervened, before Zee could even have the chance to ask something ridiculous this woman would have no way of knowing.

"Perhaps a palm reading?" Madame Mim suggested as she started to reach for Zee's hand.

Ro had to be quick, and take Zee's hand in her own before Madame Mim could touch it and feel how un-fleshy it actually was. "I think he'd like to see a card reading done," Ro quickly covered for her abruptness in snatching his hand, "Doesn't that sound more interesting, Zee?"

As they were just killing time until the agent finished his search down the row of tents they'd just been in, it didn't matter to him what kind of reading Madame Mim did. Studying Ro's anxious expression, and feeling how tightly she was holding his hand--almost possessively, he understood her concern and agreed, "Sure, a card reading sounds fine." He squeezed her hand to reassure her that he didn't intend to let Madmae Mim study his hand, and set her hand back down on her thigh.

It would be a curious thing though if she were to study his hand. All the creases and wrinkles in his hand would be computer generated and wouldn't actually reflect a lifetime of experiences that put them there. What if he unknowingly made his hand really special somehow?

"Very well," she smirked, then reached under the table and brought out her cred scanner. "Now, if you please," she held it out to Zee.

Ro subtly rolled her eyes as she reached into her bag for her cred card before Zee could pay for it with his government one. She couldn't help but think that if this woman were truly able to see anything about the future, she'd spend her time reading the stock market or playing the lottery and that she wouldn't need spare pocket change like this. It burned her to have to spend her creds like this, but she didn't want Zee to use his card when the feds were so close by and could easily track it. Bitterly, she thought it a complete waste.

Madame Mim seemed keen to her disapproval, but as she'd been paid she intended to go on with the reading anyway. Pulling out a deck of cards from the folds of her skirt she began to shuffle them loosely. "Now, what is it that you would like to ask of the cards?" she looked directly at Zee, purposefully avoiding Ro's skeptical scowl.

"Nothing specific. Surprise me," he answered.

"How about we just take a glance at your past, present, and future then?" she presented the cards to Zee and asked him to shuffle them. "Stop shuffling when you feel promoted to stop." She advised him.

Zee didn't understand what she meant by "prompted to stop", and shuffled the deck seven times as was standard policy for shuffling cards in the casinos. Confident the cards were well mixed up, he then visually counted the cards in the stack and identified the halfway point in the stack. Picking up precisely, half the deck, he handed the cards to Madame Mim. Blowing on the cards for "luck" Madame Mim then began to deal out the cards onto the table in a spread of a cross. "This card," she began, touching the very most center card of the cross, "is a representation of the voice of your soul…"

Madame Mim had Ro's interest now. She couldn't wait to hear what this woman was going to make up about Zee's non-existent soul…Flipping the card over, embarrassedly Madame Mim quickly dealt another one, as the card had been blank. Flustered she began to apologize, "Oh please ignore that… I guess I forgot to take out the spare card …" The second card she'd dealt was a picture of a woman sitting on a throne dressed in white with a veil strung between two pillars behind her.

"Ah, the High Priestess," Madame Mim chided, "The High Priestess represents the mysteries of the unconscious and the Inner Voice, and her appearance is often a sign that your own intuition is trying to send you a message. She is also sometimes a sign of the Shadow, the negative portion of your personality that no one sees, and that you yourself could be unaware of. If you accept the Shadow within you, its powers will be open to you if you wish to use them.

The veil behind her represents the unconscious, which often speaks to us in symbols so be alert around you for anything that seems out of the ordinary. That said, if you have an important decision to make when the Priestess appears, this is often a sign that the answers will be revealed to you, if you are patient and open to the whispers from within. Her lesson is that everything you need to know, already exists within you."

The detailed meaning of the card was lost to Ro's ears as she couldn't get over the coincidence of the blank card being dealt so appropriately. All she could glean from Madame Mim's ramblings was something about trusting his intuition, and using the powers from the Shadow within… She felt unsettled and worried. The shadow inside of Zee, was his original programming to be a machine built for killing and destruction. To tap into the power of his shadow meant to lose himself in that darkness…

By the time Ro was settled with her thoughts, Madame Mim was on the second card, the left hand card on the cross which showed Zee's immediate past. It was a picture of a tower being zapped by a bolt of lighting. "The tower card represents an overthrow of an existing way of life. It says that you've had disruption, conflict, change, or a sudden violent loss in your past."

"Well who hasn't?" Ro tried to discredit the uncanny similarity to their own history.

"There is no need to resent the change, as in the end, it brings enlightenment and freedom."

The third card was the bottom card of the cross, a card representing the antagonist in Zee's present life. Too bad Bennet wasn't around hundreds of years ago, or else his picture might be on that card. Madmame Mim flipped over the card. The picture on the card wasn't Bennet, but it was almost just as good. The card she'd turned over was upside down, but Ro could make out that the picture was of a man sitting on another throne—an icon of a supreme ruler over the structured and regulated world.

"A reversed emperor means a loss or dislike of authority either governmental or parental," Madame Mim explained." The emperor is a regulating force and thus associated with the government and the legal system, but can also be a father-like figure. The Emperor can also personify the assumption of power and control, by you or someone close to you. If you are the one in power, take care that you always use it wisely. Above all else, the Emperor shows the benefits of structure and logic ruling over the emotions and lesser desires."

So Zee's problem was either a rebellion against the government, the loss of a father figure, or having to master his mind over his "heart". Two out of three actually wasn't that bad for a bunch of baloney.

"Now this next card represents your immediate future, but should be considered in light as, the next step in your journey," Madam Mim began a lecture of warning before she was going to turn over the card on the right side of the cross. The card showed a man hanging from his feet. "The Hanged Man is a sign that circumstances will be literally turned on their heads. But you must have flexibility of mind and a willingness to adapt to changes. When the Hanged Man appears, know that greater wisdom and happiness is at hand, but only if you are prepared to sacrifice something for that wisdom."

Even though Madame Mim was trying to insist the card was a sign for positive change, Ro half suspected the card meant something else, but that she didn't want to give them any bad tidings so she made something happy up instead. She also couldn't help but think about the literal meaning of a "hanged man" and about Edmund's court case. Did this card mean that he was going to lose at his trial?

The last card, the final outcome card, was the "Lovers" card. Ro wasn't sure, but she almost thought she'd heard Madame Mim let out a sigh of relief., Ro found herself looking forward to having a good laugh. She couldn't wait to hear the ridiculous things Madame Mim was going to make up about her and Zee and their future together. If only she knew the truth behind their strange relationship…

But, Madame Mim didn't make any assumptions about them being a couple or an item of romantic interest, surprising Ro that she didn't interpret the card as such either. "The Lovers represent harmony and union. You will have difficult decisions to make in your future--not necessarily about love, that will need to be made using intuition and not intellect. You may face some form of test and will have to reconsider previous commitments. You may also find yourself in a struggle between two crossing paths in your life."

"Well thank you for that, it's been lots of fun…" Ro looked to Zee to see if he was ready to leave yet, as that was the last card to turn over. It seemed he was ready as he'd started to get up from the table, but when Madame Mim, entreated them to stay for one more reading (this time from her crystal ball and free of charge) he contentedly sat down again. "There is something peculiar about the aura around you two," she began explaining the reason for her generosity in doing another free reading. "I should like to see if perhaps the crystal ball will have something more to say about your futures than what the cards revealed."

Ro remained standing, unable to help but feel suspicious that perhaps this woman was onto them and was just stalling for time until someone came for them. Ro moved over to the door to peek outside while Madame Mim set up her crystal ball on the table. Seeing that everything still looked fine outside the tent, Ro permitted herself to be seated at the table again next to Zee.

Madame Mim stared fixedly into the crystal ball and began humming to herself. She seemed troubled, as if it was hard work to just stare at a big spherical glass blob. After what seemed like a minute Ro was bored enough that she was ready to just walk out and leave the woman to her craziness when Mim exclaimed, "I see something!"

Zee looked to Ro and shrugged. It didn't seem that she was being entertained by her performance anymore than he was. "You, my friend, will be the receiver of a pink coat," Mim said looking at Zee.

Staring into the crystal ball Zee only saw reflections of the candles around the room. He certainly didn't see anything pink inside of it. He looked to Ro for clarification and when her vacant expression returned none, he turned back to Mim who was still staring at him. "You mean me?" he tried to clarify. He could hardly ever imagine himself in a pink coat.

"And you," Mim turned to Ro," Will take a ride on a Pegasus." Ro was certain that woman truly had lost it. Ro was considering playing a joke on the woman by leading her on with a fictitious story that she'd had a dream about a Pegasus last night giving her a ride (just to see what she'd say) when Zee abruptly grabbed her shoulder, "RO!"

Ro suddenly became aware of the formal voices just outside the door of the tent. "Well thanks for everything, but we need to get going," she got up after Zee. In her haste, she accidentally knocked the table, causing a few cards off of the top of the tarot deck to spill over.

Mim quickly reached for her crystal ball to prevent it from rolling off the table as well, and threw a scarf over it to protect it. As her clients seemed suddenly rushed for time, time seemed to slow around her as she looked at the card that had fallen face up in her lap: Death. She carefully turned over the other two cards that had slid off the stack along with it. The Moon, and the Beast.

The cards regretfully confirmed the bad omen she'd been sensing since these two walked in the tent. Three cards: the moon, the beast, and death, and a disturbing image in her crystal ball this morning that she hadn't been able to make sense of until now. As someone spiritually in tune with the will of the universe, it would be unwise of her to ignore a message so forcefully placed in front of her and not warn this girl of the danger that lay ahead. But then, did it matter if she didn't tell this girl then terrible message? After all, wasn't a person's fate supposed to be left to their own hands, and that the cards only spoke of things the subject already knew to be true in their heart?

Ro and Zee had already slipped through the dividing curtain and into her back changing room and break area. Mim quickly picked up her skirts and ran after Ro; she had to warn her! "My child!" she reached for Ro's arm to stop her as they were about to crawl under the flap of the back tent. "Beware or else before the third night you will lose your soul to an elephant's trunk!"

There wasn't time for Ro to clarify the gibberish she'd just be warned about as they could hear the agents had just entered through the front door of the tent.

Madame Mim didn't ask why they were leaving out the back or who it was they were running from, but returned to the front of the tent where in the door way sunlight poured in around the outlines of Agent Rush and Agent West. "Excuse us, we're looking for this man and this girl," Rush said, holding up a poster of Zee and Ro.

"People seek many things in life, and through the guidance of the stars, I can help you find what it is that you truly seek in life…" Mim said with a practiced, soothing voice.

Rush stepped further into the tent, rudely walking all over Mim's pillows with her dirty shoes without thought. "The only thing we want to know, is if you've seen these two individuals," Rush was straight forward and acerbic as she held the poster inches in front of Mim's face.

Mim softened her cheerful smile, and returned Rush's tartness with a matched sourness, "No I have not, not please escort yourselves from my sanctuary—you are ruining the fung shei."

Rush didn't immediately leave, but peeked behind the back curtain to make sure no one was hiding there. Seeing that the back area was empty, she signaled to West that they could move onto the next tent and led the way out. As West turned to leave, he found himself caught on a strand from the bead curtain Mim had hanging into the doorway, and managed to pull the entire curtain down in his effort to untangle himself. Shaking off the beads from the broken strands he quickly apologized then followed after Rush.

Once they were gone, Mim sat back and wiped her forehead with her sleeve. Staring at the mess of the bead curtain West had left, and the deck of cards still on the table, she felt prompted to pull the top one off. It read: The Fool.

"No kidding," she agreed, and set the card down.


	3. Chapter 3

Zee made a note to clarify with Ro later what it was that Madame Mim had mentioned to her as they were unconventionally exiting the tent. But for right now they had to focus on finding a new hiding place quickly. They'd spent just a little too much time in the fortune teller's tent, which he blamed his own curiosity for. While he knew that it was irresolvable to debate if fortune tellers really could predict the future or not, he still felt compelled to see for himself and to make his own record of their accuracy.

Right now he felt like he'd made a poor decision and it seemed like he was making more and more of them lately. Perhaps the program that ran his decision making software had a virus in it? Not likely. He hadn't come across a virus yet that had been able to hack into his network. So maybe then it was a bug that the original programmers had overlooked? Perhaps a bug that corroded his ability to make wise decisions over time?

They were at the edge of the vendor area so they had a choice of running to the arts and crafts judging warehouse, or trying to get lost in the attractions and rides. Zee found himself remembering the time they were running from Crick in a similar atmosphere. However, at the run-down amusement park, the rides were larger and more spread out and there wasn't the risk of civilian casualty. Also, he had been less concerned about property damage.

For the sake of everyone else's safety, he led Ro towards the crafts judging warehouse. "I thought you said you weren't sure if there was an open exit in there," Ro questioned his decision.

"Public fire code will require that there be at least four exits in the warehouse," he explained. "I think we'll have better odds trying to get out of one of them than we will trying to go through the rides area."

Ro was refreshed by a breeze of cold air rushing out as Zee opened the door to the air conditioned warehouse. Checking left and right, she made sure there weren't any agents waiting directly inside before signaling that it was safe for Zee to enter. A volunteer kindly handed her a map of the exhibits, and informed her that the jam contest winner would be announced in an hour if they were interested in heading over to there. Ro thanked her, but was most grateful to have a shield she could hold up over her face if necessary.

Burying her face in the fold of the page, she peered over the top, watching for patrolling agents, as Zee looked for a way out. "I can't see over all of these walls," Zee was referring to the temporary dividers that sectioned off the different exhibits. He looked up at the ceiling. "If I follow the sprinkler lines, they should lead to the emergency fire exits," he began analyzing the insulated pipes over them.

"Uh, Zee? That way," Ro pointed to a far corner, just as he came to the conclusion himself.

"You're right!" he looked surprised.

Ro seemed uninterested in her own discovery, and merely pointed to the emergency exit labeled on the flyer she was holding for Zee to see. "And the others are here and here," she pointed to the other two.

"We should head for this one," he pointed to the one in the top center of the page.

"Fine by me," Ro didn't care which exit they used so long as they got out.

Zee rested his hand on her shoulder and in a small flash of green light, she saw that he had covered them with a hologram disguise. Inspecting her attire, she was wearing blue jeans with a red gingham shirt. Zee had on jeans and a fringe shirt with a pair of cowboy boots and an oversized belt buckle that was so large Ro thought it could double as a body armor chest plate. They looked like livestock owners, or perhaps rodeo clowns. Looking down at her braided pigtails she was fooled by their realism to the extent that she tried to touch them even. Her fingers passed right through the braided lock, yup, completely fake.

They carefully made their way past the handcrafted Faberge eggs and table place setting arrangements, taking extra precaution not to knock into the tables as they walked closely together. Moving around with the hologram was always a little more difficult than just walking side by side. Making a left at the student architectural house prints, the exit was in sight—guarded by two agents with a pair of holoviewers.

Zee was quick to turn around and seek cover, but not before they'd been seen. Their hologram disguise was convincing, but not fool proof against a pair of holoviewers. "STOP ZETA!" the agent who had spotted them shouted.

Disregarding their disguise Zee let go of her hand and ran in front. "This way!" he shouted.

'"Sometimes I wonder why we even bother with a disguise! They can just see through you anyway!" Ro sighed.

Following Zee as they ran through the aisles of hand quilted blankets and smocked baby christening gowns, Ro knew she was letting her standards slide more than usual when she reached out and grabbed one of the hand knitted sweaters from the judging table and confiscated it.

"Here," she shoved it into Zee's hand.

"What is this for?" he asked, staring at the purl and chain knitted argyle sweater.

"Put it on!" Ro instructed him, "It won't cover that can of a head of yours, but it'll fill out your middle. If we ever manage to lose these agents, you can try another hologram."

Zee awkwardly fumbled for the large hole at the bottom of the sweater. He had never put on real clothing before, but he'd seen Ro do it several times, and he was programmed to know how to do mimic the actions of wearing clothes. Still, he'd never worn anything real before, and found himself hesitant to obey…. Clothing inhibited his access to his chest panels, and his ability to grow or shrink in size. What if it got caught in the process of using one of his motor functions?

"Head goes through the hole at the top…" Ro seemed humored by his ignorance.

Resolved, he slid the sweater on over his head, and pushed his arms through the armholes. He'd felt like he'd been making several poor choices lately, maybe he should be listening to Ro more. The sweater was tight and gave him the unnerving feeling that he was being lightly held by cords or rope. Given time, he was sure he'd get used to it, but right now he would have to try and ignore it.

They ran through a display of decorated cakes, and made it back to the entrance to the warehouse. They were back where they'd started and even worse off than before. "Guess we'll have to get out another way," Zee said, throwing open the door again. With the agents still in pursuit, they cut to the right and ran towards the amusement rides.

They ran past the line of people waiting for the Ferris wheel, flagrantly cut through the queue for the gravity gliders, and then they hopped over the gate for the carousel. After riding it for 180 degrees, they jumped off on the opposite side and climbed out of the ring and continued running.

By some miracle they made it through the rides without anyone being injured, and without being immobilized by the agents. The only problem was, as they ran they were slowly being herded by the agents that were coming from all sides around them. "Hold onto me, tightly!" Zee instructed Ro, as he knew they were running out of places to run.

Ro didn't know what he expected her to hold onto, so when he wrapped his arm around her waist and held her tightly to his side, she merely copied him. She threw her arms around his middle and squeezed his waist through the sweater. Releasing her momentarily, Zee pushed the sleeve up of his right arm, then grasping Ro again with his left arm, extended his right arm, and grabbed onto the cage of one of the tall rides above them. They were jerked into the air, and Ro found her grip slipping. Zee, however, held onto her as tightly as ever, not remotely losing his hold on her as they were hoisted up. The agents closed in around the empty patch of ground where they'd just been standing, and followed them into the sky with their aimed stun guns. No one dared to fire at them though, as a missed shot could hit a civilian in the cages or disable the rides functionality and cause even more problems.

Ro wrapped her legs tightly around Zee's leg, in desperate fear for her life. The people in the cage were screaming just as loud as she wanted to. What was Zee thinking? Didn't he know how afraid of heights she was? The ride operator, seeing that the ride safety had been compromised, hit the emergency stop button causing the ride to halt immediately and the cages to swing back and forth from the stopped inertia.

"Hold on!" Zee warned her again, but she was already holding onto him with every muscle in her body. The only thing she could do more would to be to hold onto him with her teeth! As the cage rocked forward, Zee used the momentum to jump off and dive towards—nothing!

Ro screamed as the roofs of the small hotdog carts and slushy tents flew towards them. In the air without the protection of innocent human casualties, the agents began firing at them as they fell. With precision, and quick reflexes, Zee pushed Ro away from him before the stun shots could hit them, and she landed heavily on the canopy of one of the tents. She heard the canvas rip, and then she dropped through onto the ground below, relatively unscathed. Three tents down, she heard screams from where Zee had crash landed.

Disregarding the concerns of the tent owner, Ro brushed herself off and ran down to see if Zee was still in one piece. What she found was a ruined cotton candy stand that had been turned over. In the middle of which, Zee lay crumpled in a heap—his hologram disabled. "ZEE! Ro ran to him.

Before she even reached him though, the light flickered in his eyes, and he stood up from the sticky fibrous pile of cotton candy, his sweater now completely covered in the delicious pink treat. He looked like a giant cotton candy wand!

"Ro, it's a pink coat!" Zee commented, as he checked himself over, "The fortune teller was right!"

"We don't have time for this nonsense!" she immediately denied the omen. Without wasting any more time, Zee promptly peeled off the sweater, discarding it for his traditional hologram. Recovered from the stunning blast that had caused him to crash land, he was functioning properly and resumed their plight to find a way out.

Ahead of the agents now, they ran to the livestock area, and took cover behind a stack of hay bails. Surprisingly they finally had a turn of luck and the horse trailer vehicle entrance was still open. Borrowing one of the hover carts, Ro climbed into the back and crouched over on her knees. "This is so not kosher," she grumbled as Zee got in the driver's seat, and reached his arm back, and covered her with a hologram of a pig.

They easily fooled the fairground security and made it out of the fairground gates undetected. Half a block from the fairground, they ditched the cart along with their disguises then boarded the bus at the first stop they came across.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, almost as if breaking the silence between them would break the feeling of calmness that had begun to settle over them. It was hard to determine just how long they had to wait after an incident before they could confidently say that they were "safe" again, but on average, Zee figured if they made it five miles from the scene of the incident, then they were safe as long as they stayed in the city limits and didn't try to leave town.

Quietly watching the mile markers go by in tenths, Zee waited until they'd passed their six mile (just to be sure) before deeming it acceptable to speak casually to Ro again. "What do you think the fortune teller meant by that you would lose your soul to an elephant's trunk before the third night?"

"I have no clue what to make of her baloney," Ro had almost entirely forgotten about the gypsy's warning until Zee painstakingly reminded her of the cryptic message. "She's just some crazy lady who's not in her right mind. You shouldn't pay attention to what she said."

"But, my pink coat … she was right about that, what if she's right about this too?"

Exasperated, Ro turned to Zee, "You want a pink coat?" she began furiously digging through her bag, "Here's your pink coat!" she pulled out her pink jacket from the bottom of the bag and threw it at him.

"Your jacket is pink too," Zee noted, folding it up again.

Ro snatched it from him, and shoved it back into her bag without care if it got wrinkled. "Don't you see? The cotton candy on your sweater is just a coincidence. The whole thing is bogus! She probably saw my jacket in my bag when I was pulling out the cred scanner to pay her and made it up that you would receive a pink coat since she probably knew that you'd end up carrying this jacket for me in one point of time!"

"The similarities are too uncanny to just be coincidence," Zee was surprisingly favoring the illogical over logic.

Ro let out a frustrated sigh, "If you'd fallen a few feet over you might have landed in the raspberry flavored cotton candy, and then you'd have had a blue coat. Would you be so worked up over a blue coat? No!"

There was still something that upset Zee, "If she knew you had a pink jacket in your bag, and this really was just an unrelated incident, then what would make her say you were going to take a ride on a Pegasus?"

"Subliminal advertising. I'm sure one of the rides had flying horses on it as a theme or painting, and she wanted me to be fooled into thinking it was fate that I should go on it. Honestly Zee, when are you going to drop this? It was a coincidence, and nothing more."

Zee didn't say anything more after that but Ro knew she hadn't heard the last word on the matter; Zee's curiosity could never be so easily satisfied or silenced. At least without him asking questions it gave her time to ponder the question for herself, "Just what did the fortune teller mean to warn her against?"


	4. Chapter 4

Ro fell asleep against Zee's shoulder fretting over the unnerving omen. He shook her shoulder slightly to wake her up when they arrived at the bus depot and it was time to transfer to another bus, or perhaps a train. "We should see about getting to a Ground Wire so I can hack into the local law enforcement database and see what security at the airport will be like," Zee sounded like his usual self when they stepped off of the bus.

The outside temperature was hot and humid—typical weather for this time of year. It was hard to believe that in a few months it would be freezing cold and icy. She pitied the original settlers. What were they thinking? Most likely they were exhausted from the thousands of miles they'd already traveled on foot, and couldn't possibly bear the extra couple hundred miles to make it to Nevada, much less California.

Ro sat down in the shade of the bus shelter as Zee studied the various bus routes and the map of the city. "Looks like there's a free shuttle that goes downtown," Zee noted. "That will be our best bet at finding a Ground Wire, and perhaps someplace to have lunch."

The only downside to taking the free shuttle was that it was sponsored by the religious church that most of the residents belonged to, and so they were stuck listening to the subtle preaching of the religion's beliefs that were mixed in with the informative historical history audio tour dialogue. Ro tried to ignore the audio commentator, but her interest was queued when they passed by a large building called the "Family History Center" and the commentator started speaking of "genie-ology". Genealogy was something about making a family tree and mapping deceased ancestors to their living descendants. The church's zealous dedication to this hobby was stemmed from their belief that families could be together forever. Begrudgingly Ro found that she had been "had" by their scheme and was now curious to find out more. Not necessarily about eternal families, but about finding her ancestors. She had been on Skye's show to see if they could reunite her with her brother, and had been greatly disappointed to find out it was just a setup. But this "genie" thing sounded like it was available for personal use and that even someone like herself could go in and get help tracing her own family line—for free! She didn't allow herself to hope too much, but perhaps if they were stuck here waiting for a flight they could go check it out? Maybe these people might be able to find something out about her family in their huge database they were boasting?

Ro turned to Zee to ask him to remember the address of the building they'd just passed but it seemed that Zee had been listening and was already a step ahead of her. He'd reached up and had pushed the "request stop" button. "We may not make it back here if we wait," he gently smiled.

The bus didn't immediately pull over, but continued to the next historical location before it stopped. Apparently by "free service" they should have specified that the bus only stopped at the historical locations and that it didn't take midpoint call stops. Rather than waiting for the next shuttle in the opposite direction, they decided to just walk the couple of blocks back to the genealogy center.

As they arrived at the Family History Center, Ro realized they probably could have just gone on the website and have gotten the same information they were going to get from visiting in person. But, as they'd already walked here, they might as well stop in and get a personalized experience.

The woman that greeted them at the reception desk was overly cheery in her greeting, then almost ecstatic when she learned that this was their first time visiting. Ro shyly repeated what she could remember of the message she'd heard on the bus, and then asked if they were indeed welcome to this service.

The receptionist assured her that the Family History Center was open for public use, and even called a volunteer over to help her get started. An elderly woman with a name tag that read "Sister Woods" invited them to have a seat at a computer then pulled up a chair next to them.

Hesitantly Ro sat down. She didn't want to get too comfortable as she didn't want to feel obligated to do anything as she wasn't the least interested in their church and just wanted to ask if perhaps they could help her with her situation.

"So what brings you here today?" Sister Woods asked as she entered her name and password into the computer.

Ro didn't know where to start. She didn't want to reveal too much about her personal life, but then this woman probably wouldn't be able to help her much if she didn't. "Well, I don't really know. We were on the bus when we heard about some of the things you did here, and I guess I just wanted to ask if perhaps you might help me find my family."

The woman smiled, and clicked a few things then brought up a screen and began assembling a few pamphlets and brochures for Ro to look through. She then began explaining how she'd help her get started with a four generation family tree, and then from there Ro could come back and they could further help her find the rest of her ancestors. "Now, right here, " she was showing her how to fill out a basic pedigree chart, you're going to put your father's name, and then on this line, you put your mother's maiden name."

As she was explaining how to fill out the form, Ro dismally interrupted her. "What if I don't know the names of my parents?" Sister Woods stopped explaining and looked at her curiously. It was a look of wonderment if she was perhaps mentally handicapped which was why she didn't know such basic information, but as she appeared sound of mind, she went with her second conclusion. "You can put your adoptive parent's instead if you want."

She had missed the mark slightly. Ro shyly explained, "I'm not really interested in my foster parents 'genie-ology'…" she knew she was mispronouncing it, "… but I was hoping that perhaps you could help me find out the names of my real parents."

The woman then stopped what she was doing and looked at her sympathetically. "I'm sorry dear, but we don't have access to adoption records. You'd best ask your foster parents for that kind of information. Also, we only have access to records of those who are deceased for privacy and security reasons."

"I've asked, and they couldn't find any record of them." It was a little harder for her to admit the next part, " On top of that, I don't know if they're even alive. I'm hoping they are, but there's no way I can know for sure. I do know that my grandparents are dead though."

"Do you know their names?" the woman then opened a new webpage on the computer.

Ro shook her head. "Not the slightest clue. Only a year ago, I found I had a brother , and he was the one who told me they had died."

The woman looked at Zee, "Oh, is this your brother?" she asked naively.

"No, I'm just a close friend," Zee corrected her. He was surprised that she would even think they were related as he didn't share any facial similarities with Ro as family members usually did.

The woman was beginning to show a bit of discouragement. "Do you have any other relatives that might know?" she asked them.

"Not that I know of."

The woman turned from her computer. "I'm afraid we can't help you much without more information, but let's see what we can find out," she turned back to the computer.

Zee saw her accessing the U.S. social security death index. "Do you know if your last name is the same, or has it been changed?" she asked Ro.

Ro looked to Zee for advice. Should she give out her last name, especially with the woman sitting right in front of a computer? What if she typed in her name and their mug shots on their "WANTED" ad popped up? Zee wasn't any help and just shrugged his shoulders, leaving the decision up to her. The woman looked to Ro, her fingers on the keyboard, eagerly waiting to type. "It's Rowen." Ro then spelled it for her.

Sister Woods typed in the last name then studied the results on the screen. "581 hits," she mused. "Now let's see if we can narrow that down. Do you know how long ago they died?"

"I was really young, but not more than 20 years," Ro answered.

Sister Woods then narrowed the date parameters to only show those people with the last name of Rowen that had died in the last 20 years. There were still almost a hundred matches. "Some of these have varied spellings," the woman noted.

Looking over her shoulder, Ro saw listings for Rouen, Rowan, Roughan, and Roewen. The woman excluded all of these by checking the parameter: "Exact Spelling Only". The filtered results were only 36 names.

"Thirty-six, now that's not too bad." Somehow, Ro had thought the list would be much longer. It seemed "Rowen" was not a common last name if only thirty-six people in the United States had died in the last 20 years with that name. Zee made a mental picture of the list, even though the woman was printing a copy of it for Ro. "Now, this will be the hard part," she said, handing Ro the list. "From here, you'll have to look at each name on the website, looking closely at their family tree and where they lived or died, and then decide for yourself if it's a possible match or just someone else who shares the same name."

"And how do I tell if it's a match?" Ro was completely unfamiliar with the theories for elimination.

"The easiest way is if you know where they were living before they died. The Social Security Death Index lists names and locations for the deceased. If you knew that your grandparents were living in Utah when they died, then you could eliminate all the ones outside of Utah…" she gave an example.

Ro knew she had been in a girl's home in Maryland for a long time, but it wasn't the first home she'd been in, so she couldn't say that that was where her grandparents had been living before she had been sent to the orphanage. "I don't know where they lived. I was really young, and I've moved around a ton."

This girl certainly wasn't an easy case, but that was what made genealogy so addicting. Playing detective and finding ancestors was just a fun mystery that unraveled itself one clue at a time. "The other thing you can do, which is less reliable, is to go on our website and look at the census reports for the area and cross reference them to see if—your name in this case—is listed under the household as living with them. I know several people have discovered distant cousins when they learned that their ancestors had siblings from census reports, and have been able to reverse map them. There's years and years of backlogged information that have yet to be digitally scanned in and entered onto our database, but most of the recent decades are in there. Of course, census records are only performed once every ten years, so if they've died recently, or if they moved around a lot, you might have some trouble finding them."

"At least it's a start," Ro was beginning to realize how difficult this ancestry thing actually was.

"A less helpful tactic might be to look at the newspaper films we have on file and see if perhaps an obituary was printed for them in the local paper, and if it makes any references to living relatives. Unfortunately since you don't have much to go off of, you'll have your work cut out for you."

This woman was clearly experienced in her field to know of so many tips. But, as she'd said, with so little information to go off of, it would be hard to figure out which of these Rowens were her grandparents.

"Another thing you have to consider," the woman pointed out, "is if your grandmother kept her maiden name, she won't be on this list, and you'll have to go off of your grandfather's information."

"I understand. Thank you for your time," She began to get up from her seat. She realized now how foolish she was for thinking that they could help her. She should have known better than to believe something that seemed too good to be true. What this woman was suggesting was trying to find a needle in a haystack. "Thank you for your time," she said, gathering her bag.

The woman handed Zee all the pamphlets and quickly summarized some of the different searches he could do while Ro took off toward the door. Zee took them from her then hurried after Ro. The receptionist thanked them for visiting then got up to open the door for them on the way out.

"That was a little disappointing," Ro sighed as they walked to the bus shelter. She had a list of names, but didn't feel any closer to finding her parents.

"Perhaps not as much as you might think," Zee was scanning the brochures into his memory, then discarding them in the trash bin so he wouldn't have to hold them. "Records of the living aren't available for public viewing, but the government has a file for every person born on American soil. Ro, you should at least have a birth certificate on file somewhere, and that would have your parent's names on it."

"So you want to hack into the national Social Security database, and do a search on me?"

"We'd need a government computer to do it on."

"Like the Sub-Rosa Terminal?" Ro suggested.

"Perhaps not that far. The local police department is a part of the government's intra-network and would have such information available. "

Ro was reminded of the time she'd been caught shoplifting for Slam and his gang, and had had her prints run at the police station. The officer had known that she'd run away from the girl's home from her file. Perhaps there was more in her file about her than she hadn't thought of previously. If not her parent's names, perhaps the name of the city she was living in when her grandparent's died and she was first put in an orphanage? If she knew the city, then she might find which of these 36 people could be her grandparents and then perhaps on a census report—the names of her parents.

As she reminisced on her escape from the officer, she was reminded of her first encounter with Zee. Crippled from a large hole in his armor from saving her from Slam, he'd begged for her to save him from being reprogrammed. So much had gone through her mind at that moment, and against logic, she'd gotten into the car and sped off with him. In hindsight, it was the best decision she'd made in life so far. She was far better off with Zee than she would have been on her own. She had so much to thank him for, not just the way he took care of her, but the way he was able to keep her chin up and give her hope that she hadn't felt for a long time. Hope that perhaps with him, she'd be able to find her family again.

"Well it will be really easy getting into the police station. We could just tell them our names and they'd roll out the red carpet for us. Getting out though won't be so easy."

"I don't know if it'd be wise to try anything here with the feds being so close. But sometime later, we might devise a plan to infiltrate and see if I can get your file."

Zee explained some of the other services the Family History Center provided on their continued bus ride downtown. He mentioned that an easier task besides getting into the government's records would be to access the administrative files of the Family History Center users and search for the living users with the last names of Rowen, and see if Ro was referenced as a distant cousin to anyone. It would only work though if someone had created a family tree and listed her in it, which would be unlikely, as if she had any living relatives, she would have been sent to live with them preferably and not to an orphanage.

Getting off at the Temple Square stop, they walked to the mall, and got lunch at the food court, then looking at a city directory, they found a Groundwire. Doing his "thing" Zee checked the security airport security alert and found that they were on the hot list to be on the watch for. It seemed they'd get to finish the bus ride back to the central hub and take a train or touring bus out of the state, or at least to another airport.

Comfortably settled in their seats on a train heading out of Salt Lake, Ro permitted herself to fall asleep in the safety of the crook of Zee's arm, leaning against his shoulder. While she wasn't necessarily that tired, she knew that if she was awake, eventually Zee was going to bring up the fortune teller again, and right now, she really didn't want to talk about it.


	5. Chapter 5

On the second day of their journey eastwardly, Zee decided that it would be best if they took a flight to Virginia rather than continuing their slow trek across the mid west by train and bus. Zee rationalized that the slower they traveled the more opportunities they made for the feds to pick up on their progress with each purchase they made for food or fare. In Chicago, Zee booked two flights for them under made-up names with accompanying disguises under two separate transactions. With a trip to the copy-mart and the assistance of a card laminator, Zee made them a pair of decent looking matching IDs.

Easily fooling airport security, they boarded the plane unnoticed and landed in Richmond, Virginia that afternoon. They had the rest of the day to get settled in and do some reconnaissance before Edmund's case tomorrow. Selecting a hotel with internet availability, that wasn't too far from the courthouse, they paid the overpriced last minute reservation rates for one night.

As Ro prepared for bed, Zee went down to the lobby and logged onto the computer and made sure that Bucky hadn't sent any updates in time changes for the court case. There was nothing in his inbox, so he felt it was safe to assume everything was still good for tomorrow. Knowing that Ro would still be in the shower, Zee logged onto the Family History website and began doing searches on the 36 names. Only five of the names had family charts attached to them. Of those five, he could only exclude two. Richard and Sharon Rowen had only had one child, a son. He was not specifically named, nor were the members of his family, but the number of his children and their gender were listed. With six children there was no way he could be Ro's father since she would then have to have at least four other siblings. The other name he could exclude from the list was Jennifer Rowen. She had only had one girl, and her first grandchild was a girl as well. In Ro's family, Casey was the firstborn and so a match would have to have a boy listed as the firstborn in the 3rd generation.

The other three family trees were incomplete. The person who had submitted the tree had only followed the patriarch and had not filled in the information for any of their living cousins, or the marriage dates for the children.

The other 30 names weren't cross referenced to anyone. He'd have to be ambitious and request marriage information for the rest of the names and then see if there were any birth records for children for those names and make his own charts from there. Unfortunately most of this information he'd only be able to access from a government network computer, which usually were only located in police stations or government facilities such as the Social Security Office. Finding Ro's information would take a minute or two, but finding all the birth records, marriage certificates, and death certificates for each of these people would take an hour at least.

Realizing he wasn't going to get far, he logged off the computer and returned to the room where Ro had already ordered room service for herself. She was seated on the bed, indulging in a moist chocolate cake she'd spoiled herself with. "Dessert for dinner?" he commented, noting that she hadn't touched her entrée.

"Gotta make sure that you have room for the good stuff," she wasn't deterred by Zee for her unhealthy food choice, and continued to finish the slice. "So where'd you run off to while I was in the shower?"

"I just went downstairs to use the lobby computer. I wanted to do a few more searches on those names."

"Find anything?"

"I could only exclude two from the list."

"If you ask me, using their database seems as efficient as going through a phone book and calling up everyone who shares the same last name then asking them if they know if they have any long lost cousins."

"It's easier than that," Zee refuted. "A phone book has a list of names of everyone who shares the last name Rowen. We're only concerned about those who are descended from this list of now 34 names. Since we're only looking at two generations of people we've potentially narrowed our list from thousands of people to maybe a few hundred. I'm certain though that I can narrow this list down even further. Then if we get it down to a few dozen, then we can start looking in the phone books. "

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"It will take a lot of research. Perhaps after you go to sleep I can go downstairs and work on it some more."

"Not tonight," Ro said dismissively. "We've got to keep our priorities in order. Edmund's case is tomorrow. This is what you should focus on: getting into the courthouse, finding Edmund, and then getting out—all without getting caught."

Zee already had a plan. Ro would slip into the courthouse building with the throng of civilians reporting for regular jury duty. She'd break away and would meet him in the courtyard that the staff employees took their cigarette breaks in. His infiltration was a little more complex. He had looked up the names of several of the courthouse employees and had done a little profiling until he found the perfect host.

Kirsten Byrn was the call center receptionist who directed incoming phone calls to the various court departments when the person calling didn't know the proper extension. She drove a mid sized black sedan and didn't live too far from the court house. Tomorrow morning, he would sneak over and hide himself in the trunk of her car. When she drove her car into work she would unknowingly be escorting him in through the secured gate. After she left her car in the parking lot, he would wait to let himself out of the trunk through the flip down seat in the back, and would then exit the vehicle from the driver's side door in a disguise of a court worker. If no one was watching the parking lot security camera too closely, he would look like any other employee arriving to work.

From the parking lot he would just have to make his way to the outdoor court yard where Ro would be waiting for him. If he was quick, no one would notice him jumping over the ten foot wall that surrounded the courtyard.

The difficult part came next. They would have to locate Edmund in the armed security section and find a way to speak with him alone. For all of the months they'd been planning this escapade he hadn't been able to plan any specific details for this difficult task. Zee knew where the general holding area for inmates and convicted criminals were, but Edmund was special. He wasn't coming from a federal prison or a county jail. He would be transported in a private vehicle with an armed escort. There would undoubtedly be several NSA representatives escorting the caravan as well. Edmund might also not even be put in a holding area and might be directed to the court room immediately. They would be better off avoiding an interception with the vehicle and sticking to their plan to confront him inside of the building.

Unfortunately, their "plan" was all tentative. Until he actually arrived and they knew more about who was with him and which room his hearing was being held in they couldn't come up with anything too strategic. The lack of preparedness for this critical epoch concerned him. While Ro slept he would brood over it and see if he couldn't think of anything to increase the chance of their success.

At least he knew that getting out would be easy. There wouldn't be any security screens or metal detectors on the exits. They could just walk out at the same time that the jurors were dismissed for the day.

The next morning Ro woke up earlier than usual. Zee had watched her tossing and turning all night to know that she hadn't slept well. She looked at his piercing gaze, "You don't need to tell me what I already know," she held up her hand to silence him before he could comment on how she hadn't slept well.

Ro was taciturn during breakfast. There was no doubt that she was intimidated and a bit nervous. "You don't have to do this with me," Zee tried to change her mind.

"I'll be fine. We've been planning this for a while. I'm not going to back down now." She hid her fear well. She was scared, but she wasn't going to let it control her. Zee admired her courage.

Ro went with Zee over to Kirsten Byrn's apartment and looked for her car in the unassigned parking spots. It was painfully out in open view so Zee had to be surreptitious in the way he picked the lock for her trunk and climbed in. Hopefully Kirsten wouldn't notice the extra weight in her trunk making her car run a little more sluggish and would blame it on the cold morning. "See you on the inside," Ro winked to Zee then shut him inside the trunk.

Alone now she had to make her way over to court house. Checking to make sure that she still had her forged jury summons in her pocket, she hurried to the street to start walking to the bus stop. She would catch the 22 and then she would get off at the Civic Center stop and walk the remaining block to the court house on foot.

Staring out of the window she watched the mailboxes of on the side of the residential streets turn into parking meters. The grizzled sky outside appeared even darker and more gloomy through the tinted and graffiti scratched bus windows. As more people began to pile onto the bus the windows began to fog up and Ro was soon unable to anything through the condensation. She recognized her stop coming up because Zee had drilled her on memorizing the location—and because another passenger who had boarded the bus and had had his jury summons out in plain view had gotten up and moved towards the back door of the bus.

She followed him off the bus and towards a large stately building. The man whom she was following slowed his step and turned to her. "You heading to the court house?" he asked diffidently.

"Yeah… I think that's it up ahead… isn't it?" she tried to hide her confidence. If this was supposed to be her first time being summoned for jury duty she didn't want to appear too familiar with the jury selection process or too open with her intricate knowledge of the layout of the courthouse and staff.

"I got summoned for jury duty. This is the fourth time they've sent me a summons. All of the other times I've been able to get out of it, except this time." the man began boasting. "I've lived here for forty years and this will be my first time having to come to the courthouse…"

It felt like he was confessing a sin to her—as if somehow going to court held a negative connotation for which he wanted to be pardoned. "It's my first jury summons too," Ro confided in order to establish a little credibility to her story.

"You look too young to be a juror, though that's probably a good thing. They probably won't pick you based off of your age." As a school drop out, Ro had never taken Government as a school class and knew little about the jury selection process. She at least knew though that she had 18 to register to vote and to serve on a jury. If she didn't look 18, it was because she wasn't.

Following the crowd of people heading towards the courthouse, Ro listened to the gentleman explain all of his secrets and tips for her to put on the pre-service questionnaire that would further discourage her from being selected. Aside from outright lying, his best advice was to say that she watched a lot of TV shows that featured police and criminal investigations. When it came to establishing a prejudice against prosecutors, he was preaching to the choir.

As they came to the front of the court house, Ro followed closely behind the gentleman through the doors into the courthouse. As he held the door open for the group coming in behind us, Ro opportunely distanced herself. Anxiously, she joined the line of people waiting to be screened by the metal detector and guard. Ro pulled out the forged jury duty summons form Zee had printed for her. When it was her turn to pass by the guard, she flashed it quickly and stepped through the detector.

Bored by the redundancy of his job, the guard waved her through without even glancing twice at her. He was like a rancher herding his cattle back into the barn after they had been grazing in the field. Sticking close to a tall woman wearing a long khaki coat, Ro followed the procession down the hallway and around another corner. When they began filing into a room, Ro doubled back. "Anyone know where the bathroom is?" she muttered out loud as she wandered down another corridor.

She passed the closed doors of several courtrooms. There were probably lawyers in some of them arguing over plea bargains in hopes to avoid having a full-out trial. She had to go past all of these and into the administrative and filing portion of the building where the legal documents were processed and notarized. From there she would head past the copier room and then out through the double doors that led to the employee smoking area—the outside courtyard.

Holding her chin high and slowing her walk down to a casual pace she boldly strode down the hall. Hopefully if her body language reflected a sense of confidence, no one would ask if she was authorized to be in that area. She pulled out an ID lanyard from her back pocket and hung it around her neck. She then stuffed her fake ID into the plastic pouch. If no one looked too closely they wouldn't realize that it wasn't an official government issued ID.

Ro roamed the hallways until she came to the clerical department. She freely pushed her way through the door, which would have been locked if she were coming from the other direction. She emerged into a large room with dozens of desks. At the far end of the room was a long, high countertop behind which several people waited in a long queue to have their important papers notarized by a tall, dark haired man. For a moment, Ro had thought it was Zee, but then she spied a girl with short dirty blonde hair sitting at a computer by herself at a desk off in the corner of the room. Her computer screen was flashing images and pages were popping up alarmingly fast. One hand remained in her lap while the other was resting off of the side of the keyboard, not even touching the computer mouse. Somehow Ro knew that the girl's computer was not infected with a virus that was bombarding her with pop-up ads. Identity theft by means of a super techno robot was a far more accurate technical analysis…

Ro casually approached the desk. The nameplate on the desk read, "Kirsten Byrn." The girl ignored her as she stood behind her and watched over her shoulder.

"Is this a part of the plan?" Ro asked Zee.

Zee answered in a strange, feminine voice, "I'm checking to see which room Edmund's hearing is scheduled in."

"And what else?" Ro leaned in closer, though the data flashing on the screen was far too quick for her to comprehend.

Zee didn't answer immediately. "I'm requesting marriage certificate copies from the list of names we got from the genealogy center. This computer is networked to facilitate marriage licenses so I can access old marriage certificates on it. "  
Ro scowled, "Do you have time to be playing around on that thing?"

"Probably not. I sent Kirsten on a goose chase to go turn off the headlights to her car. She's bound to be back any minute now."

Ro nervously shifted her weight as she waited for Zee to finish his business on the girl's computer. Keeping watch over her shoulder she alarmingly saw the dirty blonde haired girl enter into the room through the secured door on the far side. "Uh, Zee, you've got less than a minute…" she tugged on his shoulder.

Zee's head turned and dismally acknowledged that Kirsten was already on her way back to her desk. How miserable that she was such a dedicated employee. Why couldn't she have stopped off for a cup of coffee in the break room or something on her way back?

The printer behind Ro began to print furiously.

"Are you printing something?" Ro exasperatedly cried.

Zee didn't answer. He quickly began closing all of the windows he had opened. He then logged off of the computer and disconnected his wrist cable from the I/O port. Taking Ro's hand, he quickly holomorphed, disguising them as employees and grabbed the stack of papers from the printer tray.

"Hide these!" he instructed Ro, handing the hot stack to her.

Having left her bag at the hotel Ro didn't really have any place to hide the papers. With a quick decision, she folded them in half and quickly shoved them under her shirt. She and Zee then stepped away from the girl's desk.

With the papers safely hidden Ro continued to watch Zee as he subtly reached behind them and grab something off of the unoccupied desk opposite of Kirsten's.

As Kirsten returned to her desk, she eyed them suspiciously. "Can I help you?" she asked as she seated herself in her chair again.

"Just needed to drop off this case file," Zee presented her with the manila file folder of papers he'd just snatched from the desk behind him. Kirsten briefly leafed through the folder. Rolling her eyes she handed it back to Zee.

"Court files go on Geraldine's desk, right behind you," she motioned.

"Oh, sorry" Zee replaced the file from where he'd stolen it. Then without any further comment, he pulled Ro behind him, away from the office desks.

They carefully back tracked to the secured door Ro had originally entered through. Ro casually leaned against the wall next to the door as Zee began to deactivate the security lock. In a few seconds they were through, and back in the hallway that led to all of the courtrooms. "So which courtroom is Edmund's hearing in?" Ro asked as she withdrew the papers from under her shirt and began folding them into sizes small enough to fit into her pockets. She observed that the hologram Zee had placed over her was gone.

"It's actually scheduled to be held in Judge Scarfotelli's private office."

"And where's that?"

"On the second floor."  
Ro followed Zee to the stairwell that led to the second floor and the basement. "Is that where we're going?"

"Edmund's trial isn't scheduled to start for another two hours. I just want to inspect the floor security before then."

There was no apparent security on the second floor. Ro and Zee walked past several closed doors. Each had an engraved plaque of some important court officiator's name on the front. They stopped walking when they reached a heavy oak door with a black plaque bearing the words "Judge Scarfotelli".

Zee approached the door and reached for the handle. Ro stopped him, "What if he's in his office?"

"Then there would be a guard standing outside the door," Zee rationalized.

He pressed down on the door handle, and strangely found it unlocked. Curiously Ro peered around Zee's wide shoulders as he opened the door. There was no mistaking the short and tapered haircut and the defined chin of the man wearing the dark grey suit.

Agent Bennet looked almost as surprised to see them too.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Zee didn't wait for Bennet to begin a melodramatic speech. Slamming the door shut, he grabbed Ro by the arm and fled.

"What was that all about?" Ro shouted, nearly tripping over her own feet as she tried to keep up with Zee. She felt the papers she'd shoved under her shirt beginning to shift. Crossing her arms over her waist, she tried to keep them from falling out.

"It's another setup!" Zee declared, leading her towards the staircase. However, shouts of security officers made them double back. "Looks like we'll have to find another way out, "Zee astutely, and needlessly commented.

Taking a sharp turn around the corner, they saw the doors of the elevators open. It might have been a great opportunity to escape, but it seemed Zee had other plans. An elderly gentleman stepped out of the elevator in front of them. In his hands, he clutched a large black umbrella, damp with water.

With sincere apologies muttered over his shoulder, Zee snatched the umbrella and continued to run with it down the hall—towards a dead end.

"Zee! Where do you think you're going!" Ro tried to steer him around, except when she looked behind her, all she saw were the V-cut, tailored jackets of Bennet's agents. She saw no hope for getting out of this mess whatsoever.

Before the agents could pull out their side arms and start firing, Zee pulled Ro into the shelter of a doorway. Utilizing his "breaking and entering" feature, he unlocked the heavy door and pulled Ro inside of the small office.

It was a corner office, with a heavy oak desk cluttered with papers, and an entire wall of old-fashioned filing cabinets. The computer woke up from hibernation due to the rumbling of footsteps in the room and brought up the prompt for a password. As much as Zee wanted to access its files and research Edmund's supposed spoof of a hearing, the agents were less than a minute from the door.

Toppling one of the filing cabinets, spilling its meticulously folders and papers all over the floor, Zee shoved the metal bulwark against the door to buy them some time.

Feeling panicked and in a frenzy, Ro paced the room looking for something she could use as a club to fend off the agents with. Zee seemingly had other plans besides a stand-off, as he stepped up to the window and began deactivating the security locks on it.

The window squealed as it had not been opened in several years. The door to the office similarly groaned as the agents tried to force it off its hinges.

A gale of wind caught several papers in the room and threw them around. Another gust sent raindrops rattling like gunfire across the window pane. The weather had greatly declined since they'd entered the courthouse.

"Come on Ro!"

Zee offered his hand to her, his leg perched on the window sill, his body already halfway through the opened frame. Ro's eyebrows arched into a quizzical stare. Did he intend to have her jump two stories to the ground level? Was his motherboard fried or short-circuiting? With laser blasts blowing holes in the door, Ro didn't look back . Taking Zee's hand, she put her life in the mercy of gravity.

The speed of the wind blowing outside nearly sucked her out of the window. Zee repositioned his grip to Ro's waist to better stabilize her on the exterior ledge of the court house.

Standing with their backs to the wall, her toes hung over the open air. Rain dripped from the roof onto them, soaking them as with a garden hose.

They were standing on a small strip jutting out less than six inches. Zee handed her the gentleman's umbrella with explicit instructions, "Hold on, and don't let go!"

Ro gripped the umbrella as though Zee had just handed her a live grenade with the pin pulled. It was up to her to hold the hammer down or else be blown to pieces. Actually, the analogy might not be too far from the truth. With the agent's right behind them, she might very likely be blown up—or at least shot by something if she didn't do as Zee told her.

Zee took her by the waist—a circumference about the size of two jars of mayonnaise. He lifted her out towards an utility pole which had a series of wires running from it toward a building across the street.

"Hook the umbrella over the cable!" he urged her.

Ro stretched her arms, extending the curved handle of the umbrella over the coaxial wire. Hardly waiting to see if she was ready, Zee let go of her waist. Screaming shrilly, Ro coasted down the zip-line to safety on the far side of the street. The papers she hadn't been able to stuff into her pockets, mostly the ones under her shirt, fell out in one big bunch a few seconds before she reached the end of the line—the corner of another building.

With her legs, she braced herself and kicked against the wall to cushion her impact and spare herself the feeling of being a bug splattered across the windshield of an express train. She dropped several feet to the ground as the umbrella unhooked.

Ro hurried to the sidewalk to see if it was too late to gather up the papers Zee had printed. Most had already blown down the street. Those that hadn't were now floating in puddles or being carried down the sidewalk in the gutter stream-soggy and useless. She'd lost over two thirds of the stack.

When she looked back to the corner of the courthouse, she saw Zee extend his radial arm saw and cut the top of the utility pole off. Now no one could follow them in the same manner now. The wires sparked and flying in all directions like the frayed ends of a ribbon. Some of the electrical discharged resonated with Zee's hologram dispelling it.

The rain ran down his silver body, unable to cling to him. Ignoring his blown cover, Zeta shot his grappling hook to the rooftop of the courthouse. Hopping down the side, he scaled the wall, sending bits of brick and dust flying with each bounce. Several of Bennet's agents leaned out the window and fired at him from the window, but all had lousy aim.

Ro breathed a sigh of relief. By the time they agents got to the ground floor, Ro knew she and Zee would already have too much of a head start for them to catch up.

Zeta resumed his hologram appearance and met her on the other side of the street. Wrapping his arm possessively around her shoulder, he drew her in close. Taking the umbrella, he opened it overhead. Huddled together, they walked down the street, their umbrella shielding them from the view of the helicopter flying overhead. The umbrella also served well as camouflage since many other people had black umbrellas to shield them from the rain which had started. With a side through a corner store and out the back exit, they'd lost the agents.

It was amazing—Zee's foresight to plan their escape and remain a step ahead of the feds. Except, their escape had almost been luck right now. Their meticulous plan to break into the courthouse had gone awry. Somehow, they hadn't known it was a trap.

_Again__. _

Huddled close, they walked until they reached an unoccupied bus shelter. Zee closed the umbrella and shook the water off.

Ro closed the umbrella and shook the water off. "What was that right now? How could Bennet have known we were coming?"

"I'm not sure. We need to find a phone or a computer and warn Bucky. Someone on the inside knows we hacked their system and if they can trace it back to Bucky, he might be in danger."

Ro felt her gut clench. They'd wasted all of these weeks waiting for this moment, and now it was gone. They'd never stood a chance.

She turned to Zee. The water spilling over the slanted roof of the shelter splashed him occasionally. But his clothes still remained dry. His hologram didn't reflect the wetness.

That was the way he was though. No matter how bad things let, he always let the water roll off his back.

She wrapped her arm around his. Maybe so that they'd look more natural waiting together, or maybe because his internal heater would help keep the chill from seeping through her skin.

It didn't matter how many times they ran or were chased by the feds, she was not immune to shock and fear. Having him close like this really helped calm her nerves, but she wouldn't admit that to him. She couldn't let him know how scared she was back there. If he knew her inner turmoil, he'd think of a way to leave her again. More than anything, she didn't want to be without him.

"Are you alright?" Zee turned to her, worry etched in the wrinkles he mimicked on his forehead. It looked so real, but she resisted the urge to brush the locks of hair in his eyes out of his face.

She chewed on her lower lip, and ultimtely decided to not respond to his concern. "Is it possible that the hearing might still be today, but in a different courthouse? Or could Bennet be there because he was going to be guarding Edumund?"

Zee shrugged her arm off and turned from her. "Ro,I really don't know. All traces of his case have been deleted from the system. This was our last hope and it was just another setup."

Zee was not being very optimistically helpful at the moment.

"You don't know that. Maybe it won't be easy to gain access to the Sub Rosa Terminal without Edmund's help, but that just means we'll have to try harder to find another way in. It may take a lot more time, but we'll make it work some how."

Zee continued to avoid looking at her. It bothered Ro how he seemed to be shouldering all the blame for their failed mission today. When would he get it through his thick head they were in this together? It's not like she knew it was a setup either.

"Time is always against us. A lot of time has passed since Bucky gave us the original date and location. It's possible that something could have changed and that Bucky failed to catch it and inform us. I cross referenced all of the other scheduled hearings for the day. Edmund's case was on Judge Scarfotelli's agenda, and it's clear that was a fake tip. For all we know the case may already have happened and we missed it. The NSA is getting too clever. "If they suspect they've been hacked, they will likely have taken counter measures to contain the breach of security. I think we should consider this a failure and focus on getting out of town. We need to hurry and get in touch with Bucky and warn him."

Ro grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face her. The expression she wore was sour, like she'd bitten into a rotten orange. Impossible things didn't happen to people who refused to believe in them. If he was going to learn one thing from her, it would be that the true measure of the human soul, is it's ability to hold onto hope. Love was also a good canditate, but she might just be fooling herself to believe he'd ever understand something that complex. She wished it, but being realistic, she knew she could at least teach him to have hope.

"This was not a failure. We learned something important. We've learned that we need to step up our game too. If the NSA is hiding their info, then we'll have to be sneakier and find a way to get it. Even if we have to figure out a way to infiltrate the NSA headquarters in person and do a manual search, we'll find away."

Zee interrupted, "Something like that would be..."

"Suicide."

"I was going to say difficult."

Ro laughed. "Yeah, well, that's the story of our life, isn't it."

As if chiming in on their bleak situation, the wind picked up spraying rain drops into the bus shelter. It was biting cold. Wet weather was one of Ro's least favorite things about the East coast—that or how everyone dropped their R's and half of their vowels when they talked.

Zee reached to take the umbrella from her hand. No—he didn't take it from her but stood behind her and reached around her to open it, almost like he was embracing her in a hug from behind. His chin brushed her ear as he leaned over her shoulder and pressed the slide release button for the umbrella. The umbrella sprang open in front of them creating a frontal shield from the slanted rain.

"Ro! Look!" Zee cried in alarm.

Her skin pebbled and her heart leapt into her throat. What now? Had the agents found them?

"Look at the umbrella handle," Zee clarified, turning the shaft so that she could see the hooked knob more clearly.

She hadn't noticed earlier (how could she when she was too busy worrying about falling to her death) but it was a wooden handle carved in the shape of a horse head. The nose of the stallion jutted out straight, with the mane and neck forming the curves that rounded the handle into a shape of a hook.

She turned to shove him in the chest. "Don't scare me with such an alarmed voice like that! I thought there were agents..."

The wind picked up again and tore the umbrella out of her fist before she could finish scolding him. It carried the parachute-like contraption high into the air. The umbrella spun and twirled, rolled, and flipped in the air like a trapeze artist.

Ro lurched to chase it, but Zee held her back. The wind didn't throw it back to the ground, but kept carrying it higher and father away. It was like it was flying.

"Ro," Zee said solemnly, "It's the second omen."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Pegasus in Greek mythology is known as a winged horse. A horse with wings, is essentially the same thing as a flying horse. There's no mistaking the coincidence, Ro. You just had a ride on a Pegasus when you zoomed down the zipline on the umbrella."

Ro's heart banged, her skin chilled, and she wished the ache she felt in her stomach was the sort that could be clamped down with something like a bowl of Coco Pebbles.


End file.
